BBC news 2007-08-03 加文本

BBC 2007-08-03


【电信用户1】在线播放和下载

Download mp3

fundraising abuse. The vote fulfils the electoral pledge by the Democratic Party nine months ago to clean up politics. The legislation follows a spate of scandals involving Congressmen and lobbyists. From Washington, Vanessa Heaney reports.

The bill would require lawmakers to disclose the names of lobbyists who raise $15,000 or more for them within a 6-month period by bundling donations from many people. Lawmakers who want to raise money for special interest-spending projects would have to publicize this in advance. They would also be banned from accepting gifts from lobbyists or their clients. Former Senators and top aides would have to wait two years before directly lobbying Congress.

The Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has said he's willing to create a special zone under international protection to negotiate a humanitarian accord with the left wing rebel group the FARC. However, President Uribe said there would be conditions. "If the FARC liberates the people they have kidnapped, the government is willing to set up a meeting zone so that a peace agreement can be signed within 90 days. "

Reports from Tripoli say that Libya has signed a contract with France to buy armaments worth some $230 million. It would be Libya's first such deal with a European country since the lifting of an embargo on such deals in 2004. The Libyan reports say that the deal involves two contracts for missiles and communications equipment, but few details have been revealed. The French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner denied there was any link between the reports of an arms deal on the recent release after a French mediation of seven Bulgarian medical staff held in Libya for eight years.

Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer has been accused of misleading the public after the mistaken shooting of an innocent Brazilian man in London two years ago. The Independent Police Complaints Commission concluded that the officer Andy Hayman knew of the mistake within hours but didn't tell his seniors and government officials until the next day. Police shot dead the Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes on the train. They mistook him for a suicide bomber the day after failed bomb attacks in London. Robe Brendy reports.

Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police commissioner has been exonerated. The report concluded he's not knowing he misled the public in the aftermath of the shooting, but for the country's most senior police officer to be described as almost totally uninformed and kept in the dark as information emerged suggesting that the police had shot an innocent man is damaging. One of the two men detained in connection with a failed car bomb attack on Glasgow International Airport in June has died of burns he received in the attack. The man had been undergoing treatment for 90% burns after a car was driven into the terminal building.

This is the World News from the BBC.

A United Nations-backed court in Sierra Leone has convicted two former pro-government militia leaders of war crimes. The man, Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa, fought for the Civil Defense Forces against rebels trying to seize power. Both men were acquitted of additional charges of crimes against humanity. Correspondents say their prosecution has been largely unpopular in Sierra Leone where many people think they fought for a just cause to defend the population against rebel atrocities. But the court's chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp told the BBC it was irrelevant which side the men were fighting for. He said that the nature of their crimes meant they had to be prosecuted. "People were skinned alive and others were treated cruelly and child soldiers and child in particular kids of11 years old, you know, were recruited to engage in this war and these are serious crimes."

Canada and the United States have dismissed a Russian submarine expedition to plant a flag on the sea bed of the North Pole. The operation carried out by two Russian mini-submarines was intended to bolster Russia's claim to an area thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves. The Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said Canada's claims were well established. "There is no question over Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. We've made that very clear. We've established a long time ago that these are Canadian waters and this is Canadian property. "

Victims of some of the floods in South Asia desperate for food and shelter have clashed with police in eastern India. Relief teams in the region are struggling to take aid to more than 17 million people displaced or marooned by the floods caused by monsoon rains.

In Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of people are camping on the roofs of their homes, waiting for help. A BBC correspondent there says the relief effort is piecemeal and insufficient.

That's the latest BBC World News.


Glossary:
exonerate: declare sb free from blame.
convict: (of a jury or judge) declare in a lawcourt that sb is guilty (of a crime).
acquit: declare sb to be not guilty (of a crime); free or clear sb (of blame, responsibility, etc.)